Faith in Humanity

April 24, 2019

I had a case recently where a gentleman was struggling after a serious cancer diagnosis that had impacted his health long term. Chemotherapy had caused numbness of his hands and feet; he had loss of short term memory and difficulty with balance. He worked in an office where his job performance declined over a period of years.

He was fortunate to have paid into Social Security, so retirement benefits and disability benefits would eventually be available. In the meantime, his employer allowed him to continue to work and he continued to pay him despite the face that he was providing very little value to the company as a whole. Others in the office had to help him with his duties, correct his errors and show him how to do simple things over and over again. And yet, he continued to receive his full paycheck for years.

His employer provided not only employment, but a wealth of support for him. His employer became his family when he had little contact with his own. He has hired people to clean his apartment, he has purchased groceries when his refrigerator was empty, he had driven him home from the hospital, he meets him for breakfast weekly and this week, he came to his (now former) employee’s hearing to spend his morning telling the judge how hard things have been. He was humble, playing down his contributions both financial and emotional. But after the hearing, he became my hero and restored my faith in humanity.